In Komi, the investigation of the case against thief in law Yury Pichugin (Pichuga) has been completed. The ICR Investigations Directorate in the Republic charges him with some grave crimes, for which he may face life imprisonment.

The final version of Pichugin's indictment has been filed under the following articles: Art. 210 of the Russian Criminal Code (Organization of a Criminal Community), Art. 222 (Illegal Storage of Firearms), and Art. 105 (Murder), a source in law enforcement bodies told Rosbalt.

The thief, who is at present imprisoned at Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, has begun to get acquainted with the case file, which contains more than 300 volumes.

To recall, Yury Pichugin was detained in February of 2017 in an elite country house settlement in the Moscow region. Simultaneously, the thief’s accomplices were detained in various Russian regions.

In Pyatigorsk, FSB officers captured his closest ally, Khadis Azizov (Lomano). The operation was held in the Belissimo restaurant, where he had arrived on his Mercedes S500 with region No. 11’s license plate (the Republic of Komi) to meet with a friend. In Syktyvkar, other OCG members and their associate businessmen were detained, including Aleksey Rokhlin, Sergey Soldatov, Sergey Vanuyto, Maksim Abubakarov, Aleksandr Egorov, Oktay Efendiev, and Akhmed Isaev.

Later, siloviki detained two other members of the gang, namely, Vyacheslav Popov and Georgy Guziev; and then Makhach Azizov was arrested. Viktor Karpov has been put on the federal wanted list.

According to the investigation, Pichugin’s OCC has operated in the Republic of Komi over the past 20 years. The OCC members would protect the local business, engage in swindling, armed robberies, and other illegal activity; they would transfer the money obtained as a result of their action to the common fund. Searches conducted as part of the investigation in several cities revealed several arms caches.

At the same time, Pichuga and some other thieves in law were called one of the main candidates for the ‘throne’ of ‘Thief in law No. 1’ Zakhar Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy), who was detained in the summer of 2016. It is known that he was later replaced by Oleg Shishkanov (Shishkan).

In July 2017, Head of the ICR Investigations Directorate in the Republic of Komi Sergey Isaev said that Pichugin and other members of his gang would face new charges, including for grave and especially grave crimes such as murders, as well as for economic crimes.